Degrees

B.A., Philosophy, minor in Political Science, The George Washington University, 2004

Biography

Dr. Fisette joined UNR's faculty in 2015, and in 2017 he received the College of Liberal Arts Dean's Award for Outstanding Teaching by a Member of the Contingent Faculty. His dissertation, Reason and Realism in Hume's Moral Philosophy, won the 2015 Hans Jonas Memorial Award for Best Dissertation in Philosophy from the New School for Social Research. His Master's thesis, "Hegel and the Ethics of Care," won the 2008 Outstanding M.A. Graduate Award from the New School for Social Research. He was formerly the organizer of the Hume Society's sessions at the Eastern and Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association, and is currently co-director of the 46th Annual Hume Society Conference, to be hosted by the University of Nevada, Reno, in July 2019. He also maintains a lively interest in George Berkeley and in July 2014 he had the pleasure of serving as Scholar-in-Residence at Berkeley's Whitehall Museum House in Middletown, Rhode Island.

Specializations

History of early modern philosophy, ethics, David Hume.

Research

Dr. Fisette's areas of specialization are ethics and the history of early modern philosophy, particularly as those fields intersect in the philosophy of David Hume. Fisette's research challenges a basic premise of a standard reading of Hume, which is that his ethical legacy is skepticism about moral reasoning and the existence of moral facts. Fisette argues that Hume is not as skeptical as he is widely thought to be, and that the standard reading is based on a mistaken interpretation of two key passages, the meaning of which shifts when we return these passages to their proper historical context: Hume's preoccupation with John Locke's metaphysics and Stoicism's moral psychology. His next project argues for the continuing relevance of Hume's politics of politeness to American constitutionalism and contemporary politics.

Teaching

Philosophy 101 — Introduction to Philosophy: Happiness

Philosophy 210 — World Religions

Philosophy 213 — Introduction to Modern Philosophy

Philosophy 317 — History of Ethical Theory

Philosophy 318 — History of Political Philosophy

Philosophy 415 — Kant

Publications

"Hume on the Stoic Rational Passions and 'Original Existences'," Journal of the History of Philosophy 55, no. 4 (2017): 609-639.